Most data generated is not used to its fullest potential
Think people, process and then technology, says Donna Roach, CISO for University of Utah Health.
From left: Michael Meucci of Arcadia, Donna Roach of University of Utah Health, Srinivasan Suresh of UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh and and John Halamka of Mayo Clinic Platform speak at HIMSS23 in Chicago.
Photo: Susan Morse/HFN
CHICAGO - As much as 95% of hospital data goes unused, according to healthcare IT experts.
Eighty percent of data is in unstructured text, said John Halamaka, president of Mayo Clinic Platform, speaking with other IT experts at the HIMSS23 Executive Summit session, "Putting Data to Work for Innovation in Healthcare."
"This is a process," Halamka continued. "Every day I see a new buried treasure on a registry." Using the buried treasure for clinical use can be challenging.
Moderator Michael Meucci, CEO of Arcadia, asked the panelists how they're identifying the technology that's needed and deploying it.
Donna Roach, CISO for University of Utah Health, said the policy is to first think about people, the process and then technology.
"What's the process you're trying to improve upon?" Roach said. As a CIO, she loves to look at the technology, but first it must fit an identified need that fits into a process that improves care for patients and eases the work burden for clinicians.
The strategic goal is to work on quality improvement towards the hospital's mission and goals, said Srinivasan Suresh, chief medical information officer for UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh.
"It's very rare we look at a technology and say where in the hospital can we use it?" Suresh said.
Halamka indicated that Mayo goes slowly before implementing system-wide change for its hospitals. In 2020, staff members successfully used remote monitoring to treat an 87-year-old woman in her living room. The latest numbers are 22,000 patients discharged from their living rooms.
"We're evolving the technology along the way," Halamka said.
What also has changed is a different mindset over data, the participants said.
There's less of proprietary competition and more of willingness to say, "'How can we do this together?'" Halamka said.
At Mayo, data and AI combined to get diagnoses of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and other muscular diseases based on tone and manner in speaking, according to Halamaka.
"We trained an AI model used by anyone in the world," he said. "It's taking the place of three clinicians and we're using it worldwide."
Twitter: @SusanJMorse
Email the writer: SMorse@himss.org
Zenobia Brown will offer more detail in the HIMSS23 session "Views from the Top: Can Technology and Innovation Advance Behavioral Healthcare?" It is scheduled for Tuesday, April 18, at 10:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. CT at the South Building, Level 1, room S100 B.
